Cairns Cup, Round 7: Two wins, three leaders, and three missed chances

by Johannes Fischer
6/18/2025 – The Cairns Cup in Saint Louis remains exciting. With two rounds to go, Humpy Koneru, Carissa Yip, and Alice Lee are tied for the lead with 4.5 points out of 7. Trailing by just half a point are Harika Dronavalli and Alina Kashlinskaya. In round 7, Carissa Yip won a tactical skirmish against Humpy Koneru, while Alice Lee capitalized on Alina Kashlinskaya’s overly aggressive attacking play. The other three games ended in draws, but Harika Dronavalli (pictured), Nino Batsiashvili, and Nana Dzagnidze all missed promising opportunities. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club
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After six rounds, Humpy Koneru was the sole leader, half a point ahead of the field. But in the top game of round 7, she lost a tactically complicated game to a well-prepared Carissa Yip.

Alice Lee, who had bounced back well from her round 6 loss to Bibisara Assaubayeva, scored the second win of the round.

The other three games of the round all ended in draws, but could easily have ended differently.

Harika Dronavalli, for example, missed a good chance to pose potentially unsolvable problems for Assaubayeva in the endgame.

Nana Dzagnidze got a good position with Black against Mariya Muzychuk, but didn’t find the right follow-up and in the end had to be happy with a draw.

Nino Batsiashvili also missed a good chance – in a complicated position against Tan Zhongyi, she brought the wrong rook into the attack.

With two rounds to go, three players – Humpy Koneru, Carissa Yip, and Alice Lee – are tied for the lead with 4.5 points each. But Alina Kashlinskaya and Harika Dronavalli, who share fourth and fifth place with 4 out of 7, also still have a chance to win the tournament.

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Topics: Cairns Cup 2025
Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".
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6/17/2025 – After the rest day following Round 5, fighting spirit returned to the Cairns Cup in Saint Louis: all five games in Round 6 ended decisively. The new tournament leader is Humpy Koneru, who won an interesting theoretical battle against Harika Dronavalli. She now leads with 4.5 points out of 6, half a point ahead of Alina Kashlinskaya, who defeated Mariya Muzychuk. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club
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Video

60m English New ideas in the Najdorf_E

‘New ideas in the Najdorf – a Power Play 18 Update’ aims to complement Daniel King’s popular DVD from last year ‘The Sicilian Najdorf - a repertoire for Black’. Such a dynamic and popular opening as the Najdorf is developing the whole time. On this download, Daniel King updates lines that were included on his DVD but also responds to viewers’ requests, considering lines that he omitted from his original repertoire. The lines examined on this update are: • 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 e5 7 Nde2 • 5….a6 6 Bc4 in combination with the English Attack (Be3, f3 etc) • 5…a6 6 Be3 and the …a5 variation • 5…a6 6 Be2 and 9 Re1 • 5 f3 (instead of 5 Nc3) It isn’t necessary to have seen the original Najdorf DVD to understand the lines examined here – but it would help as they form part of a complete repertoire.